


Aches Laid Bare

by sphekso



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Bedelia goes for the wine as usual, Canon Compliant, Dialogue Heavy, Episode 3x12, Extended Scene, Hannigram without Hannibal in it, M/M, Missing Scene, Screenplay/Script Format, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 02:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7600075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sphekso/pseuds/sphekso
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little extended scene scriptlet imagining what might've happened after Bedelia posed her bombshell of a question in the 3x12 therapy scene. You all know the one...</p>
<p>"But do you ache for him?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aches Laid Bare

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! Quick disclaimer: This is very much not intended to be in proper script format. Since it's an extended scene and it was already dialogue heavy I decided to cut the scant description and stylize it as a script. This is the first and likely only time I'll write anything in this manner, so bear with me. It's an experiment! But anyway, bon appetit.

_WILL GRAHAM and BEDELIA DU MAURIER sit across from each other in her home office. WILL is tense. He leans forward from his seatback with his elbows on his knees. BEDELIA is the picture of serenity._

WILL (cautiously): “Is Hannibal… in love with me?”

_Bedelia tilts her head a little. Her lips twitch into a flicker of a smile. She expected this question._

BEDELIA: “Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for you, and find nourishment at the very sight of you?”

_A beat._

BEDELIA: “Yes. But do you ache for him?”

WILL (stunned): “You mean he…”

_Will shakes his head twice in disbelief._

WILL: “I won’t answer that.”

BEDELIA: “I didn’t expect you to.”

_She tilts her head the other way, openly appraising him._

BEDELIA: “I know Hannibal is an anomaly for you. Under normal circumstances your disorder would prevent you from becoming so close to another person. And Hannibal… Well, his complexities aren’t definable. But what _can_ be defined are the jigsaw pieces you’ve formed yourselves into.”

WILL: “Jigsaw pieces?”

BEDELIA: “Yes. Jigsaw pieces that match each other and each other alone.”

WILL: “I wish I could say you were wrong. I don’t even remember what life was like before him.”

_He rubs at his forehead._

WILL: “I remember a conversation we had three years ago, in the Uffizi Gallery.”

_Bedelia gives a slight nod._

BEDELIA: “You’ve told me about that conversation. You’re referring to what you felt marked the past and future.”

WILL: “Before him and after him.”

BEDELIA: “It’s understandable. As humans we’re susceptible to harm from those we trust. Any intense emotion runs a risk of betraying us and breaking us to shards. When that happens we’re irrevocably changed. Those shards can never come together again in quite the same way. We can be mended, but, as with all broken things, the cracks in one’s spirit can’t be hidden by glue alone.”

WILL (distantly): “Broken like a teacup.”

BEDELIA: “Yes. Like a broken teacup.”

_She studies him some more. He’s shaking, and it’s plain to see she’s pushing him to his limits._

BEDELIA: “Do the cracks show through the glue of your teacup, Will?”

WILL (without hesitation): “Every day.”

_He reddens at the abrupt confession._

BEDELIA: “Then you already know where I’m leading you? I wasn’t sure you’d made sense of it yet. It must be a heavy weight.”

_Will looks up. Bedelia is intently engaged in the moment, yet her face bears no signs of sympathy._

WILL (shyly): “I pretended not to know for a while.”

_A beat._

WILL: “Molly never knew.”

BEDELIA: “About your feelings for him?”

_Will cringes back into his chair. A few seconds pass before he abruptly snaps to attention._

WILL (quickly): “What about you? Didn’t you have feelings for him?”

_She sighs. Will has disappointed her._

BEDELIA: “You’re redirecting the question. But if it helps you, I'll elaborate. My interest in him was something else entirely. I knew he was a dangerous man from the outset, yet his mind seemed to operate in perfect stability. Once, I would even have described him as gentle. I wondered how those traits could coexist, and after I began wondering it didn’t take me long to realize his drug of choice.”

WILL: “You wanted to understand why he did the things he did?”

BEDELIA: “I wanted to understand what I had failed as a psychiatrist to understand from years of therapy. I saw an opportunity to do that after he removed his person suit.”

WILL: “After he tried to kill me.”

BEDELIA: “Yes.”

_She taps her fingers again._

BEDELIA: “We’re dancing around a very difficult question, Will. Rather than ask you again, I’ll pose a related one: Have you made peace with the answer you've declined to offer?”

WILL: “Of course not.”

_He tangles his hand through his hair and leaves it there._

WILL: “I don’t know if I ever can.”

BEDELIA: “You’ve been struggling with this for some time. It would be beneficial to get it out into the open.”

_As if in defeat, Will drops his hand from his head to his armrest._

WILL: “There’s no need to get it out. I know my own mind. I wish I didn’t, but I do. It terrifies me.”

_Bedelia uncrosses her legs and stands. Will bolts upright in surprise._

BEDELIA (calmingly): “No, none of that. Try to relax a little. You’ve done more than enough for today.”

_A beat._

“Hannibal and I used to indulge in a glass of wine after our sessions. Let’s pretend our hour is over.”

WILL: “If you’re offering.”

_Bedelia leaves him sitting alone in his chair. She returns a minute later with two glasses of wine._

BEDELIA: “I hope Chianti is to your taste.”

WILL: “Anything that’ll calm my nerves.”

_He accepts the glass she holds out to him. He takes a drink._

_She swirls her wine under her nose, inhales, and swallows._

WILL (breaking the silence): “Bedelia…”

BEDELIA: “Yes?” _._

Will: “You didn’t actually need to ask, did you? You seemed to already know my… my feelings.”

BEDELIA: “Ever the good detective. Yes, I’ve suspected it since our first session, but I thought it would be better if you came to it naturally.”

WILL: “Does it make you think less of me?”

_She takes a moment to sip her wine while she thinks._

BEDELIA: “I can’t say I’ve come close to the emotion myself. But I expect the forbidden variety is just as impossible to control as the common kind. So no, I don’t think less of you for something so human as falling in love.”

WILL: “Even for a killer?”

BEDELIA: “Even then.”

WILL (stumbling): “Thank you. Honestly, thank you. I’ve needed confirmation that he—Well, I’ve just needed that for years. I’m grateful.”

BEDELIA: “Confirmation isn’t closure.”

WILL: “No, it’s not. But it’s the closest I’ll ever get.”

_He looks at his glass and grimaces._

WILL: “I don’t think I can finish this.”

BEDELIA: “Upset stomach, or leaving so soon?”

WILL: “It’s a lot to take in. I need to get some distance from what was said here. Physical distance.”

_He sets his glass on the table and takes his first steps toward the hallway, but stops before he can get too far away._

BEDELIA: “Forget something?”

WILL (weakly): “I don’t know if you ever visit him. You probably don’t, but… Don’t tell him. Don’t let him know I know how he feels, and please don’t tell him what we… The answer we danced around, as you put it. About me… aching for him.”

BEDELIA (amused): “Will, there _is_ such a thing as doctor-patient confidentiality, and your aching demands that to the nth degree.”

_Will nods, his back fully turned to her now._

WILL: “See you next week?”

BEDELIA: “You have your standing appointment. Maybe you’ll finish your wine next time, hmm?”

_Will doesn’t respond. He exits._

_Bedelia waits at the window until he’s driven away, then in his absence allows her expression to turn somber. She actually does feel sympathy for him._

BEDELIA: “Both of us Bluebeard’s wives…”

_She shakes her head and leaves the window._

**_END_ **


End file.
